Page 64 of The Misfit Mage and His Dashing Devil

“In a sense.”

Bez stared silently at the bloody battle. The devil devoured and destroyed thousands of demons, but finally, his giant form shrank in size. He still towered above us, easily ten to twelve feet in height. Coating his hands in white Diabolic essence, it materialized differently than the talons Bez had summoned. The devil conjured a large double-sided blade in his left hand and a matching white shield in his right. Barreling through the horde, he ruthlessly cut down any opposition.

A group of shackled demons crept from the shadows of some castle. Palace, maybe. It appeared merely as a silhouette in Bez’s memory.

One in particular caught my eye. A tall, slender gray-skinned demon crawled ahead of the others. His long, straggly hair covered his face, but his piercing red and pink eyes shimmered. They appeared so hollow and subdued, an expression I’d never expect from Bez. My heart pounded. That was Bez. The real Bez. He looked half-starved and fully broken. Nothing like the confident, muscular, and cocky devil I’d met. He had four horns, three broken off, but the one remaining curled tightly like a ram’s horn. His gray wings were closed, scarred, and missing most of his full, lush feathers. His three tails twitched as he abandoned the other shackled demons and crawled over Diabolic corpses toward the warring devil.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Winning. It’s something that never occurred to me until this moment.”

Bez skirted along the field of carnage until he reached a small collection of black mist. The Diabolic essence stabbed at injured demons laying there half dead. They roared in agony. Bez reached out his shackled hands and grabbed the mist. It stabbed at his skin, but he didn’t release it. He didn’t flinch, either. My entire body wanted to sink deep into the shadows below me, realizing how unfazed Bez was by the pain, like he’d endured so much more, and this simple strike meant nothing.

The misty essence transformed in Bez’s hands, becoming a shriveled, bloody heart.

“I wasn’t too shocked to find my former devil god-king had such a tiny heart. A ruthless monster who’d made our realm far crueler than most Hells.”

“I thought all Hells were like this. Fire, decay, agony.”

“Equating Hell to cruelty and horror is a very mortal perspective. A limited one, as well. Hell realms are merely dimensions created by devils and homes to demons,” he explained. “Some are quite pleasant, or so I hear. Most, like Mora’s, were simply boring and unchanging. She wanted to escape eternity, so she chose to retire in the mortal plane.”

“So demons can die in our world but not in your own realms?”

“Yes and no.”

“Which part?”

“Demons can and do often die. However, the devil of a realm sets the tone. Rarely do they allow that which they’ve breathed life into find rest. A demon who dies in Hell is often regenerated by the whim of their devils.”

“Why? Why not allow their demons to die? Is that why these ones turned on Beelzebub?”

“They turned on him because he’s one of the cruelest devils.” Bez stared off at the carnage of his memory. Most demons had died at this point, but more continued fighting and clawing and chipping away at the devil. “To answer your question, devils don’t like their numbers to drop because they fear—hmm, fear is the wrong word. Not certain a devil feels in that way. But they wouldn’t want another devil to see their realm dwindling numbers as it could be interpreted as weakness. They focus on eternity and eternally maintaining their place in a very bizarre hierarchy of devils. Each a god in their dimension.”

A demon lunged at Beelzebub’s broken shield, ripping his arm off. The devil hacked the demon in half, then spun his blade until a whirlwind warped the battlefield, and a sparkling blue doorway opened.

“A portal,” I said, reminded of the many doorways in the Magus Estate, astonished the devil could fight a sea of demons and muster the magic to tear open the dimensional walls. “What’s happening?”

“I was never certain. Perhaps Beelzebub planned on fleeing to the mortal realm to recover or kick a few of the demons out to turn the tide of battle.” Bez shrugged, treating this as indifferently as he did so much, but this had to mean something more—this was his most guarded secret. “Didn’t stick around long enough to ask. All I remember was seeing his weakness in the moment and making my move.”

I waited to witness Bez’s attack, unsure how his fragile chained body could compete against a devil who continued slaughtering demons that raced at him from all directions. He squeezed the heart tightly between his hands. Blood dripped down his shackled wrists. Pulling the heart close to his mouth, Bez bit into the heart. His sharklike teeth glistened as he chewed chunks off. Blood gushed, and he continued devouring bite after bite, gulping it down and swallowing. I squirmed as Bez lapped at the blood dripping down his fingers.

“You ate his heart.” I scrunched my face. “The whole thing.”

“Yes. Taking a potent but less powerful piece ensured I’d maximize my strength without fear of my former god-king overtaking me.”

Blood trickled down Bez’s gray chin. His body grew, muscles filling out as he resisted the chains which held him. Diabolic essence oozed from his pores, forming needle-like spears which stabbed at the cuffs bound around his wrists, ankles, wings, neck, and torso. The Bez of the memory bellowed furiously while the current one guised in human form cackled. There was a joyful confidence in each of their somber eyes. Stretching his damaged wings wide, the demon Bez soared through the bloody battlefield and crossed through the summoned portal.

Demons screeched and wailed. I covered my ears which did little to silence the overwhelming roar the devil unleashed. As the portal closed, everything fell into darkness. I took a shaky breath once things quieted.

“What happened next?”

“No clue.” Bez held a longing gaze at the infinite darkness, then smiled, hiding any emotion other than joy. “I left this Hell and closed the door behind me. For all I know, Beelzebub overpowered them and retook his realm; maybe they’re all ruling as a hierarchy, using his power to strengthen their hold on the dimension, or perhaps another devil learned of Beelzebub’s precarious position and devoured the dimension along with all its inhabitants. Though, I doubt I’d be that fortuitous with the last possibility.”

“So you fled and took Beelzebub’s name?”

“He wasn’t using it, and the piece of the devil inside me alters my Diabolic essence enough to fool most. Even other demons.”

“Why didn’t or doesn’t he, um, the other Beelzebub, open the portal and take you back or get his heart back?”

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